


Dusk

by indijones4



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Animal Death, Animal Transformation, Animals, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Gods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-22 08:25:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3721984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indijones4/pseuds/indijones4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Breach was a threat to all, man, beast or spirit. Dusk understood this, but did she really have to work with people to fix it? Dusk, as the goddess of creatures, does not like people, but maybe she could still learn to trust some… not enough to tell them what she is, though.<br/>She wasn't sure she was the Herald of Andraste, but she did know that this Inquisition was going nowhere fast without the mark on her hand. </p><p>A story about a god-inquisitor, which diverges from canon (hopefully not too much)<br/>Ratings may change, relationships may be added etc.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waking up

Kat-teh, the land that was forever in half-light.

 

Shadows and echoes of the day that had never really ever been there, danced in equal measure as Dusk herself stalked under the boughs of the trees in the forest. The land rippled underneath her, announcing her presence to the dreaming animals, they quickly noticed and regarded her with respect.

Some were in their true form, others were in forms that weren't theirs; experiencing different views that helped them see the world truly, as they danced the eternal dance of predator and prey.

She herself was in her humanoid form; a lithe form that seemed to be somewhere between human and elf, with thin horns sweeping gracefully up and back out of her dark brown coloured silky hair, even as they curl a little inwards. It was the form of a long dead and forgotten people, her people; the drackis. Her ears flicked around, while her slit eyes watched the dreaming critters and took in the alarming amount of fear that seemed rampant through them.

Before she could dwell on it further, the ground rippled again and the dreaming animals scampered away and out of the way as the Guardian Creatures ran towards her.

“Dusk!” Nug called, leaping into Dusk’s arms.

She laughed as her friend sniffed her face with concern that really wasn't normal of the Nug Guardian.

“What’s up with you, Nuggy-poo?” she sing-songed twirling in circle, before coming to a stop and staring into Nug's fearful eyes with concern.

“What’s up, What’s UP?!” screeched Fennec, fur poofed out and he started quaking in a way that had to be over-dramatic, (right?)

“You nearly died, Dusk!” Feline clarified in an exclamation, a far cry from his usually cool attitude.

Wolf sighed gazing into Dusk eyes in the way that spoke of sombre, sad thoughts, “We all nearly died,” she said.

  /\\__/\  
 /_     _\  
    \\_/

Dusk woke slowly to a dull throbbing, not from her head like was usually expected when you wake up in a dark room with strange people and no recollection on how you got there, but from her hand. She could feel some sort of magic on it; it crackled aggressively, sending out greens sparks and sending small shoots of pain up her arm.

It wasn't her magic; it was connected to the Fade, and very, very powerful.

The goddess hissed, on edge, everything felt too stiff, too man-made around her.

She looked up from her hand and gazed about the room with eyes that could pierce the darkest shadow, while her ears twitched and pivoted picking up some of the smallest of noises, like one of the guard’s hitched breath.

And the steady approach of marching feet.

The door opened and people in armour filed in moving to the sides as they were followed by two women. One with armour and a sword and the other with a hood.

“Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now?” the woman in armour asked as she circled her.

She bit back the automatic reply that usually came when anyone threatened her life, and tried to gauge the situation.  
( _did they know_?)  
Her eyes followed the sword wary of its threat.

“The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended it is dead, except for you.”

She stayed silent, peering around again, noting that the other woman had moved into the corner, before looking back at the armoured woman with a confused expression.

“Explain this,” the woman grabbed her marked hand and shook it, sending the mark into a flurry of sparks.

She snarled in response of the unwanted (and painful) contact, her ears flicking back. The woman with the sword did not appreciate this response ( _of course not_ ) and Dusk’s hand was promptly dropped in lieu of grabbing the sword’s pommel.

“We need her, Cassandra!” the hooded woman called to the armoured one, Cassandra, before calmly turning to Dusk and asking, “Do you remember what happened, how this all began?”

(You know that thing, with using a kind tone to soothe a frightened horse? Works for goddesses of beasts too.)

Dusk sighed deeply, a slight growling rumble rippling through it, as she closed her eyes and tried to work out the most recent thing she could remember, that wasn't that concerning visit to Kat-teh, “I remember running,” that was right, the desperation and fear she felt as she flung herself forward was easy to recall, “There were things chasing me,” she could remember the wails of corrupted drackis that couldn't actually have existed, but the next memory confused her completely, “And then, a woman?”

“A woman?” the hooded woman echoed, questioningly.

Dusk remembered a feeling of familiarity, even if she couldn't understand its existence, “She reached out to me, but then-” there was nothing else, nothing but a vague feeling of loss and underlying dread.

She sighed and shook her head, ears flopping pathetically; it didn't make any sense. Nothing about this situation made any sense. Looking up at Cassandra, she saw an individual who was looking as worried and confused as she felt.

A deep breath that came with a whine, before she steeled herself and decided to clear up at least some of the question the people had, “My name is Dusk, I am of the drackis; the last as far as I know,” truth, omitting the details of her being a god, but truth none the less.

“I have no idea why I was at the Conclave as you say, as far as I am aware that was happening a month from now,” absolute truth, she had heard whispers of the Conclave from the shadows she roamed and had grasped the wane hope that the people could end their conflicts.

Which begged the question, how far back did she have this amnesia? Not a question to think about now though.

“And as for this…” she stared down at the mark before stating weakly, “I… don’t know, it’s magic?” she knew a fair bit more than that, but that was all she could feel comfortable with sharing.

She threw her gaze around the room from the soldiers, to Cassandra, to the hooded woman, “What has happened?” she asked with her voice small, so very afraid of the answer.

Orders were given then the manacles were removed; manacles she  _hadn't_  actually realised were there. Chains had never really been something that could contain her, because even if she couldn't destroy them she could change her shape and slip away, but on principal she didn't like the idea of being contained.

“It will be easier to show you,” Cassandra gripped her by the shoulder and led her.

Out of the darkness and man-made, and into the light.  
Her eyes instantly adjusted, robbing her of any further ignorance as the green tear in the sky met her gaze.  
She let out a wounded howl as she saw what had befallen the sky, a cry that was picked up by other creatures across the land.

Dusk the goddess of the beasts cried out and the beasts of Thedas cried with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kat-teh is basically the animal version of the Fade but without demons or spirits, just animal dreamers and the Guardian Creatures; representatives of each animal species and groups.


	2. Through the Storm

Blaze-Black was stuck under some dead tree and could only look up at the sky.  
Could do nothing but watch the green Fade-bits dance in the sky, like twisted winter-lights.

A worse storm no wolf had ever seen, even if it wasn't really a storm.  
But it had to be a storm. What else could cause this damage? The pups, the beautiful pups, were cold; along with four others of the pack.

From the Fade-Storm.

" _Fade-Storm_ ", he called to his pack, " _this is Fade-Storm_."

They agreed from the various places they were pinned, under dead-trees and loose-stone.

Except the ones already cold.   
They were silent, for the dead don’t speak

 /\\__/\  
/_     _\  
  \\__/

They trudged in silence, with the sound of death, destruction and chaos around them. Cassandra kept the prisoner ahead of her so she could see her at all times. Not that she was too worried about the prisoner actually running away, but it was standard procedure.

The drackis, as it was, hadn’t uttered a sound since that howling cry that had sent the dogs, horses and birds of Haven into a frenzy of sound. Her wail had been growing in volume when it morphed into a short screech of pain as both the Mark on her hand and the Breach expanded. Then she fell silent, responding only in nods when Cassandra explained the situation to her, green gaze almost entirely focused of the sky.

She had agreed intently to helping with the Breach and her eyes continued to focus on the shattered sky as they walked. The drackis seemed to shiver every so often; whether that was from horror or the cold Cassandra wasn’t so sure; but she was still wearing the threadbare clothes she had been found in.

The Seeker was roused out of her thoughts when the prisoner froze suddenly and looked up slowly. The strange goat-like ears, which had been flopped gloomily, suddenly straightened up to attention. They both took one step back, then another, to get out of the way of a projectile falling from the Breach.

It rose up out of the ground, a shade, a twisted thing. Spotting them instantly, it lunged forward. Cassandra pushed past the prisoner and took the demon’s first swings on her shield before countering with a sword thrust. The foul thing screeched and garbled some sort of broken language.

Behind her the prisoner hissed like a cat and the sounds from a second shade could be heard. The drackis was nimble, quick and could surely avoid the demon long enough for Cassandra to finish the demon in front of her first.

With that in mind the Seeker slammed her shield into the demon to stun it before cutting it down.

A shriek and a thud came from behind her. Cassandra spun around to see the other demon dead and disintegrating at the prisoner’s feet. Two long knives held in a vice grip were dripping with its blood.

Where had they come from?

“Drop your weapons!” she commanded.

At the order the knives were unceremoniously dropped on to the ice with a pair of clangs.

They both winced at the loud sound before looking at the knives and the disappearing demon.

“On second thought,” Cassandra said slowly, “You should probably keep them; they won’t be the last demons we meet,”

The prisoner had abnormally large canines, Cassandra noticed when the drackis grimaced and looked to the sky.

“I should trust you,” Cassandra admitted carefully, “After all; you agreed to come,”

Dusk nodded tiredly and met Cassandra’s gaze with brown eyes, “If I wanted to run, I would run and you wouldn't catch me.”

Cassandra frowned while the knives were picked up again. Both at the words and at the fact she could have sworn that the drackis’ eyes were green.

 /\\__/\  
/_     _\  
  \ _ /

Solas sent an ice spell to freeze another demon which then was shot by the dwarf Varric.

Then he took the chance of the lull in battle to lay down some spells around the small Rift. Until it was closed, this battle was never going to end.

But, of course, it couldn’t be closed without the Mark, as everyone saw fit to call it, and that was firmly attached on the drackis who may or may not be coming.

So he downed another lyrium potion to replenish his mana which was taking a beating, as another batch of demons emerged from the Rift. A few of them got caught in his ice mines but the rest he and the rest of the warriors would have to deal with.

It was Cassandra’s shout of challenge to the demons which he took notice of first while once again freezing a demon. He spared a glance for her and found the drackis in her shadow.

-

When he had first seen her, she had been dying of two causes; the Mark that was trying to expand just as the Breach was doing and the grey sickness that had taken her kind, the drackisar, in the Arlathan Empire.

A drackis, that had surprised him, he had assumed that they had all died out long ago, but here was one, thousands of years after, still surviving. 

And found crawling out of a Rift with a Mark on her hand and Grey sickness in her veins.

The people of course assumed she was some sort  of demon, but luckily his words of reassurance managed to sway them against killing her before she woke up.

Not that there had been much hope he could save her; the Mark he could slow and stop from killing, but the Grey sickness he could do nothing against, but he tried anyway. 

She was scarcely left alone but at one point he had left to grab a few ingredients in the dark of the night and when he returned, he found that an all manner of critters had flocked to her; rats were nestling in her hair, moths fluttered above her head and one rather fluufy, ginger cat had laid himself down by her side.

The rats had scampered off as soon as they noticed his presence, the moths had wavered off almost regrettably but the cat had risen up, ready to claw if he came too close.

He had been ready to escort the feline outside but then he noticed how his patient was breathing steadier and- was that colour on her cheeks? Then something remarkable happened; she reached out with her unmarked hand and tugged the cat closer.

The cat looked smugly at him in the way that only a cat can. So, yes, the cat had been allowed to stay and his patient made a full recovery from the Grey.

 -

Now in battle she hissed at the demons in the same way a cat would, but Solas knew it meant something in that obscure language of the drackis.

Many of the demons were momentarily distracted by whatever she had said and fell easy prey to the rest of the fighters.

There was one left for the drackis though, and she jumped on it, sticking her two knives into the demon’s weak spots, downing it in of fell move.

She got up staring at the Rift in front of her so didn’t see him approach.

He grabbed her marked hand and pulled her forward, “Quickly, before more come through!”

Her hand stiffened in his grip as he brought it towards the rift. It closed quite easily, and he was quite glad that it had worked. Though of course he had known it would work, but it was nice to see it actually happen.

He turned to the drackis and her eyes and ears, as expressive as they were, told him her mood easily enough. She seemed caught between running away screaming, and tearing him to bits, probably also while screaming.

Once he let go of her hand she backed up quickly till she was slightly behind Seeker Pentaghast before levelling him with a vicious yellow-eyed stare. Such a response was concerning of course, but not at all really unexpected; if she knew anything of her kind’s history with elves.

" _Älv..._ " she hissed quietly, showing her fangs.

That was one of the few words of the drackisar tongue he had managed to work out, it meant elf.

"What did you do?" Cassandra asked.

"I did nothing, the credit is hers,"

"Or rather this mark's," the drackis spoke softly in trade tongue, incredible.

But Solas hid his surprise quickly, "Yes, whatever magic opened the Breach in the sky also placed that mark upon your hand. I theorised the Mark might be able to close the rifts that have opened in the Breach's wake- and it seems I was correct."

"Meaning it could also close the Breach itself," Cassandra concluded.

"Possibly," Solas met the drackis’ eyes again, which seemed to had cooled into an amber colour, promising, "It seems you hold the key to our salvation," 

-

Dusk was a whirlwind of emotions trying to decide what to do with the fact that there was an elf in front of her when someone else joined the conversation (and thankfully distracted her)

"Good to know! And here I thought we'd be ass deep in demons forever," the dwarf said as he walked up to them.

"Varric Tethras: rogue, storyteller and occasionally unwelcome tag-along," he accompanied that introduction with a wink towards Cassandra.

But something about the dwarf was nice and friendly, and Dusk could practically feel her eyes switching to a comfortable brown, so she responded, “And I am Dusk; a very confused drackis,” she tilted her head and pointed her gaze at the object now strapped to Varric’s shoulder (she knew pointing with fingers was considered rude… or was it? People are annoying), “That’s nice,”

“Ah, isn't she. Bianca and I have been through a lot together,”

“She is very beautiful,” Dusk, her eyes darting over the beautifully practical mechanism built for killing, the (what was it?) … _weapon_  reminded her of Wolf, “But I'm afraid I've never come across such a weapon before, what is she?”

“A cross-bow,” Varric answered patiently.

“Ooh, so a fancy  _stick-launcher_ \- ,” she realised that was what 'bow' was called in beast-speak not Trade Tongue, “I mean… uh, I.”

Dusk cursed her inability to use people-speak properly, "bow! I mean bow I-" she paused and dropped her gaze, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak trade tongue that much,”

“No, it’s fine, tell you what,” Varric responded, “Maybe you could practice a bit with us in the valley, you know in-between killing all the demons and stopping the apocalypse-”

“Absolutely not,” Cassandra butted in, “Your help is appreciated, Varric, but-”

“Have you been in the valley lately, Seeker? Your soldiers are not in control anymore. You need me”

Cassandra made some sort of noise that Dusk was going to have to work out the meaning of later. (why would there be a ‘later’?)

And then the elf made himself known again, "My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions. I am pleased to see you still live," the voice was calm and somewhat amused, probably unaware of the turmoil his mere presence was causing her (or at least why).

She still had one of the knives she picked up in her unmarked hand she realised when she started squeezing her hands into fists.

But before she could do anything with her high strung emotions she was again distracted, "He means, 'I kept that Mark from killing you while you slept," she was beginning to like Varric, he had good timing.

"... Then thank you," Dusk said carefully to the elf (think of him as a mage instead, the most elves don’t even speak elvish now) after a moment, dropping her gaze in a submissive display of gratitude.

"Thank me when we close the Breach without killing you,” he answered.

“ _That would be appreciated, but it’s kinda hard to kill me,_ ” she mumbled in beask-speak while Solas moved on to discuss the situation with Cassandra, only properly listening when Cassandra declared they needed to go now and took off, Solas following.

"Well, Bianca's excited," Varric commented as he walked past her to follow.

“ _Yay for Bianca_ ,” Dusk grumbled to his back in beast-speak, her eyes finding the broken sky again.


	3. Suppressing the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait if anyone was waiting.  
> I'll probably add some of my art to this story later, so look forward to that.

“As Grand Chancellor of the Chantry I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution!”

She got ready to run, very fast.

“Order Me’? You are a glorified clerk. A Bureaucrat!” Cassandra objected.

From what she could tell this was some sort of competition for power but if that was the case Cassandra should clearly be the winner- no wait, people stuff, everything is complicated.

Roderick responded in turn, “And you are a thug, but one who supposedly serves the Chantry. Would you not see this creature hanged for her crimes?”

Dusk didn't mind that the man had called her a creature; that was pretty much true, what she did mind was the threat on her life; that could complicate things. Namely because she was pretty sure they would have a hard time killing her, but it would stop her from stopping the Fade-Storm, which would kill her because of the mark on her hand; and then everything would go and die.

It was Leliana who answered her soft, calming voice, “We serve the most Holy, Chancellor, as you well know,”

Which did _not_ work on Chancellors.

“Justinia is dead!” he cried, before sighing, “We must elect a replacement and obey her orders on the matter,”

“So you are without alpha?” no that didn't make sense in people speak, alpha definitely wasn't the right word, “There is nobody?-“

Despite her slip the Chancellor seemed to know exactly what she meant and with an accusing finger interrupted, “You killed everyone in charge!”

There was an awkward silence where her eyes couldn't quite decide what colour they should be.

Eventually he seemed to calm down and go sort of _tired_ , “Call a retreat Seeker, our position here is hopeless,”

“We can stop this before it is too late,” Cassandra answered resolutely.

“How?” asked Roderick and continued with more-

But, well…

Dusk had drifted off from the discussion and was staring intently at the Chancellor. He seemed to know her.

She wondered what that meant and again on what she possibly done in that one missing month.

With a flash the Breach expanded a bit, interrupting her thoughts and the conversation, and sending intense shoots of pain up her arm.

She bared her teeth in a snarl and considered the merits of killing the nerves in her marked hand.

The rest watched a she struggled to get her hand to stop shaking and possibly hearing her hiss out a few of the more colourful bits of beast-speak.

And then it was over for the moment.

When prompted by Cassandra for what she thought, she decided quickly, “I vote the mountain path; packs don’t charge.” ( _There would be less people to deal with too_ )

And it turned out she was deciding vote, because that’s exactly what they decided to do.

Before they quite walked off, Dusk paused by the Chancellor and waited until he looked into her eyes.

“Do you know me?” she tilted her head to the side, “Should I know you?”

He looked back down at his desk (isn't a desk supposed to be inside?) and answered, “… Yes, it's true then you have lost you memory,”

  /\\__/\  
 /_     _\  
   \\__/

Her unmarked hand kept twitching for a part of her that wasn't there at the moment. The rest of her kept twitching because she could get to the rift much faster, in many ways.

Her marked hand was aching; that, she didn’t try to move more than necessary, except for trying to find some less painful to hold the knife in that hand.

Perhaps Varric noticed this because he suddenly asked “So what’s your story?”

“ _huh?_ ” wow, what an intelligent reply from the goddess of the beasts.

Fortunately the confused beast-speak noise she made was still understood by the dwarf, “You know; where are you from, are you innocent?”

“I am from the wilderness, but _like_ everywhere, _I don’t know_ , I don’t know the people names for the places I've been- many places; wherever free beasts roam, the drackis will call home.”

“So you’re nomadic?” Varric was great with words.

“That is the word!” people-speak was strange, so many words, “Nomadic, I’ll remember it,”

She paused and her smile slowly fell off her face, “As for the second question…”

Her gaze dropped and her eyes turned full green, “I don’t remember,”

Solas spoke up, “Whatever occurred at the Conclave surely had to be a traumatising-”

“It’s more than that; I don’t remember why I was even at the Conclave…” she continued, “We tend to avoid people…”

“We? You mean that there are other drackisar?” Solas questioned.

“I don’t know…” she couldn't say that she knew that they had all perished, “I haven’t seen any outside of my pack, who I last saw years ago,” easy lie, and if they asked any further questions about her pack she’d talk about her family, “Regardless, my race doesn't really have the best history interacting with people; I don’t know what could have led me to being there.”

“But… I don’t care what I may or may not have done, all I care about right now is the fact that we are looking at the _apocalypse_ ,” she gestured towards the Breach, “Whoever or whatever did that was not me, _I'm pretty sure_ , meaning that there may be something capable of doing that on the loose,”

“That alone is scary even without the… moral implications?” she wasn't happy with those words, they weren't right.

“That whoever did that is probably fairly evil?” Varric supplied.

“ _Exactly_ ,” was the beast-speak reply.

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

Cassandra was a little worried that it was Varric that managed to get Dusk to talk more than a few ominous sentences. Not that she was proving to be overly talkative overall, having to be prompted to start talking with questions.

In fact, she wasn’t being at all talkative right now, or making any sounds at all- Her light footsteps had stopped.

Cassandra turned around.

The drackis stood frozen, staring deep into the trees to the side of the path. Ears upright at attention, twitching every so often.

“Dusk…” Cassandra called in warning, but was ignored.

Indeed it seemed like the drackis didn’t hear her at all and with a gasp, Dusk pitched forward, weaving through the trees.

Cassandra cursed before running after her, having much more difficulties with the powder snow and trees with her armour.

She could hear that Varric and Solas were trying to follow behind her and were having an equally hard time.

The snow was reaching up her shins and trying to plough through it was proving challenging. She caught herself from falling straight on her face, twice.

At least the snow, that she was having so many difficulties with, left a clear track of the prisoner’s path, it weaved a little but seemed to be heading in one direction.

But apart from the path cut through the snow, there was no trace of the prisoner, not a sound.

“I don’t think she’s running away,” Varric commented.

Cassandra just might have agreed with that, what was it that the prisoner had said; ‘If I wanted to run, I would run and you wouldn't catch me,’ but the path was a bee-line, and the drackis had missed out on many spots to change path to have her tracks be untraceable.

They would catch her.

Unless she was just really fast.

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

They came across a wolf corpse.

A beautiful white wolf, huge in size, laying in the snow as if it was a puppet and something had cut its strings.

Red blood stained the snow around its head where clouded blue eyes stared.

The source of red was a large gash on its forehead. A chunk of stone lay not too far away; it had made a furrow in the snow and was flickering slightly with green light.

It had died with the explosion at the Conclave; that, they could figure out.

 As they were studying the corpse, a cacophony of whimpers and yelps came from over the next hill.

Quickly and carefully they ascended the hill to find the drackis at the bottom of the small valley.

She was trying to pull a log off a wolf and despite the whimpers of pain coming from the canine its tail was slowly beating the ground.

A quick glance around the clearing showed other wolves trapped in similar situations, and some dead.

Slowly Cassandra approached, sword out, and the prisoner turned around and met Cassandra’s gaze with green-blue eyes, “Could you please help me?”

Cassandra stepped forward, not sure whether she was going to drag the drackis back towards the intended path, until she remembered something Solas had mentioned, ‘the drackis had a huge connection  with beasts, and were more sympathetic towards them than other races, in fact I theorise that they have some way to communicate with animals.’

With that in mind the Seeker took another step forward with a clear intention, only to be met with a growl from the trapped wolf, and she looked down at the panicking canine that was trying to lash out at her feet, dark grey in colour with pale green eyes darting in fear. Dusk pushed away the sword and knelt by the beast’s head and started talking in some soft language interspersed with more basic sounds, purrs and the like.

Slowly the beast calmed down enough for Cassandra to come close enough to lift the log off.

The beast leapt up immediately and as it regarded her with the cool intelligence wolves all possessed, she studied it's face a found a interesting marking.

Black fur surrounded it's left eye as if someone had taken a piece of charcoal a smudged it from near it's nose up to the tip of its ear. 

Then the beast turned to Dusk and Cassandra moved on to the rest of the wolves, with Varric and Solas joining her.

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

When Dusk asked name of the first wolf to be set free, the wolf answered, “ _I am Blaze-Black, I am Beta,_ ”

The wolf over the hill had been the pack’s Alpha, that she could tell, so with some regret she started, “ _I am sorry, but your pack needs a leader to survive-_ ”

“ _But we have an Alpha,_ ”

“ _…I’m sorry, but you don’t any longer,_ ”

Blaze responded with fear-aggression, “ _No! He’s alive- my litter-mate is alive, he’s over that hill-_ ”

“ _He is; I came from that way_ ,”

The wolf froze before suddenly lamenting, “ _No, not the Alpha, not the pups, please,_ ”

The pups? Her breath hitched when she noticed the small corpses, “… _I’m sorry, I can’t do anything for them_ ,”

“ _What are we supposed to do_?” whined the new Alpha, gaze firmly locked to the ground.

“ _Gather your pack, survive, if you want a purpose; find me in Kat-teh,_ ” she lifted the canine’s chin so he would meet her eyes, and growled softly, “ _You are the Alpha now_ ,”

She stared into the Alpha’s eyes issuing a challenge; be the best Alpha you can be, he stared for a moment, calming quickly, before asking a calculated question, “… _Do you think the Fade-Storm will stop growing?_ ”

She sighed and dropped her gaze, “ _I don’t know, but I am going to try and quell it,_ ”

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

Once all the living wolves were freed they gathered and quickly decided they had to get away.

So they turned around to face Dusk and softly sang a song of farewell;  
“ _Through moonlight, sun or rain,_  
_we hope to see you again,_  
_may your wanderings bring no pain,_ ”

Then quickly and quietly they disappeared; away from the storm and away from the pain.

Dusk watched the space they had been and turned her gaze to the remaining wolves lying dead and cold, before addressing the people, “Thank you, I know we have no time for delays,”

“So the drackis tongue does allow for communication with beasts,” Solas murmured.

A quick nod was all Solas got as an answer. Dusk’s gaze lifted from the dead wolves to what had caused all the devastation.

The people were calling it the Breach, but Fade-Storm made sense to her. She felt her eyes flash yellow in a way they hadn't for a long time.

The Fade-Storm had to be quelled.

  /\\__/\  
 /_      _\  
    \\__/

She smelt death; it was acid on the wind. They rounded a corner a came upon a scene from a nightmare.

The utter destruction of the landscape was one thing, the burnt (still burning) corpses where a whole other thing altogether.

And while most had been people, they were never the only people casualties at these sort of events. There was a blackened dog in the rubble, long dead. A lone horse lay a bit over, burnt to a crisp, a frozen form of panic.

“The Temple of Sacred Ashes,” Solas declared.

“What’s left of it,” Varric added.

“That is where you walked out of the fade and our soldiers found you,” Cassandra informed her, “They say a woman was in the rift behind you. No one knows who she was.”

She sucked in a breath, “You tell me now…” her eyes were turning an intense green, “I was in the Fade?!”

Did someone mention this before? She should have probably payed more attention to them, this was important information. It did explain the snippets of desperate running and corrupted drackis, especially with how the demons seemed intent on attacking everything, but where was her brother in this? And how come she had been in the-

Her hands were suddenly gripped in gauntleted hands and pulled away from her face ( _she didn't even realise that she been covering her eyes_ ) being forced to meet Cassandra’s serious gaze, “Calm down, what’s wrong?”

So after a deep breath she dropped her gaze and slowly began to explain a bit; “Drackis thrive on their connection to the wild beasts, but disconnected we wither away,” she whimpered slightly, “if I was in the Fade I would have been almost totally disconnected from all wildlife. I'm lucky I survived.”

“So that is why you had the grey sickness,” Solas concluded.

“ _I HAD THE GREY SICKNESS?!!_ ” she screeched in beast-speak, which sounded like an actual screech to the people.

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

They rounded another corner once Dusk had calmed down, and were met with the starting Rift.

“The Breach is a long way up,” remarked Varric and Dusk agreed, though it could be higher, it was after all still in the atmosphere.

“You’re here! Thank the Maker,” the nice voiced Leliana called as she ran up to meet them.

She gave a small smile, before she turned back to the crackling Rift.

Cassandra started issuing orders then stepped into her view, “This is your chance to end this, are you ready?”

“Do I have to get up there?” worst case scenario she could switch into a bird and fly up, but with how she was feeling right now she wasn’t sure how well that would end up.

“No, this Rift is the first and it is the key, seal it and you may seal the Breach” Solas’s knowledge on these things were useful, she decided, useful enough to ignore anything else about him.

“Then let’s make our way down, and be careful,” Cassandra finished.

So they made their way down towards the Rift, going down the side where there were convenient stairs and rubble in basic stair shapes.

As they did, something thrummed in her veins, something here was clashing with her very nature, she scanned the area and caught sight of red.

Dusk hissed as Varric swore.

She glared at red lyrium ( _Corruption_ ) and shuddered.

“You know this stuff is red lyrium, Seeker,” Varric muttered.

“I see it, Varric,” Cassandra growled.

“But what’s it _doing_ here,”

“Magic could have drawn on lyrium beneath the temple, corrupted it,” Solas theorised; Dusk thought it would have to have been corrupt magic in that case.

“It’s evil, whatever you do, don’t touch it” Varric didn't need to tell her twice, the only reason she would touch that would be to destroy it (later).

Regardless they’d passed it and moved on towards the Rift, it was just as they reached the bottom of the pit that something decided to happen.

“Now is the hour of our victory,” a dark, loud voice said.

Dusk started, jumping up and landing in a crouch, ears flicked back and blades brandished. The others had less extreme reactions but were equally surprised.

“Bring forth the sacrifice,” it continued.

And then another voice was heard, Orlesian accent clear, “Someone help me!”

Cassandra identified it, “That was Divine Justinia’s voice.”

And another voice, one very familiar to Dusk, “What’s going on here?”

Cassandra identified this one too, “That was your voice! Most Holy called out to you but-”

Dusk might have been _slightly_ freaking out still, “I know that’s my voice, do you think I don’t know my own voice-” she stopped when something started happening with the Rift.

With a flash the image of a large, dark, shadowy figure and the dead Divine appeared. The Divine being held up by some red magic. Not usually a good sign.

And suddenly in the vision, Dusk entered.

( _A bit harried looking, red rimmed eyed, and sick, but it was her she was looking at._ )

And then of course there was the smudged and severely indistinguishable aura that surround her; a shadow of her true form, she hoped none could recognise it for what is was, but it’s appearance was brief so she felt sure that no one would.

“What’s going on here?” she said sternly, chin high, fake pride meant to intimidate, before her ears flicked back in horror, “Justinia!”

( _Recognition, first name basis; not good, what had she done?_)

Justinia seemed alarmed that she was there, “Go Dusk, warn the others!”

With a look the clearly said ‘Are you out of your mind?’ the vision-Dusk took her scythe off her back and into an attack position.

( _She was favouring her right side; it was slight though and wouldn't be noticeable by most_ )

The dark phantom glanced towards vision-Dusk dismissively, “We have an intruder, slay the beast-ling,”

The Dusk in the vision crouched into a fighting position twirling her scythe around in her grip impressively while she growled, “Oh, I’d like to see you try-”

And with a flash the vision dissipated, leaving the place silent apart from the rift’s crackling. The others were wondering, questioning, she could feel it around her.

Despite all the new questions, she could only wonder one thing; where was her scythe? She looked around trying to sense it in a way while Cassandra rounded on her and started to question immediately.

"You were there, who attacked?" then she grew more agitated, "And the Divine, she knew you, is she...? Was this vision true? What are we seeing?"

Dusk shook her head in response. She didn't remember any of it ( _the voice though, dark and growly… she’d heard it before, but where?_ ) and was more concerned at the moment by her scythe’s disappearance ( _What? It was a part of her_ ).

"Echoes of what happened here. The Fade bleeds into this place," Solas instead gave as answer.

He walked up the rift, “This rift is not closed but it is sealed, albeit temporarily.”

“I believe that with the mark, the rift can be opened, and then sealed properly and safely,” he reported, “However opening the Rift will likely attract attention from the other side”

“That means demons. Stand ready!” Cassandra ordered, and everyone scrambled into place.

Apart from Dusk, “I’ll be ready in a minute,” she called while her hands dug and tugged the rubble out of the way between her and her precious scythe.

She pulled it out of the rubble and grimaced at its torched appearance. She drew a very small burst of her magic through it and it healed back into the weapon she knew and loved; under the soot.

“Okay I’m ready, everyone else?”  Dusk asked awkwardly clutching her scythe to her chest.

They were staring at her scythe.

“…what?” she squeaked.

“You intend to fight, with that?” Cassandra questioned, “A farm tool?”

She sighed, spun her scythe down and cleaved a stone in two, then shrugged, “It’s a decent weapon,” before pacing up to the rift.

‘Decent’ didn’t quite cut it; it was part of her ‘self’, so imbued with her power as the weapon was her as much as an arm or leg was, also the assortment of runes, including two Maker rule runes, definitely helped.

She swished it about again, “And, it’s been handed down generations to me, I shouldn't have been separated from it in the first place.”

“Well when you put it that way, who are we to stop you from using your stone-slicing scythe?” Varric chuckled.

She turned to Solas who beckoned her forward.

Green light shot out of the mark, and she could feel the mark reacting to the Rift, connecting, she wasn't exactly sure how she would go about opening the Rift.

But after a second she decided she’ll just try to will it to open, if that didn't work Solas would surely have some other suggestion.

With that in mind;

_Well, open up why don’t you?_

And with a flash from the Rift it was open and something spawned out of the Rift with a flash of its own.

Humanoid, large in size, many eyed, sharp-toothed and topped with horns.

... It had to be a Pride demon, didn't it? Maker, she hated dealing with Pride Demons.

Of all the demons they were the ones that were almost exclusively from people. Terror, Desire, Fear, Rage, Despair; all of them could be found in extensively in animals. Pride came mostly from the People. Which meant she had trouble understanding them.

Anyway, when it roared at her ( _declaring that it was not going to be peaceful or reasonable_ ), she snarled and leapt forward, scythe blade flashing like a silver fish, even under the soot. A silver piranha to be exact, it darted as she sought out weaknesses in Pride’s armoured skin, drawing demon blood every so often.

She did not expect the vicious backhand, though the follow up of the electricity whip was a common combo. Cassandra caught the second whiplash of electricity on her shield easily then looked down to assess the damage.

“I’ll be fine,” Dusk hissed, waving her off.

The demon laughed menacingly; oh Dusk was going to wipe that smirk off his face, but how?

  ________  
 \   . ,, . . /  
   \ <o . /  
     \\(,,)/

By the time her nerves had stopped being fried she had a plan. She cupped her hands and from across the battlefield shouted boldly, “ _Hey Pride!_ ”

The demon stopped and turned around, ignoring the others for a second.

**_Lady Dusk is a goddess after all, but from that tone of voice she couldn't seriously…_ **

“ _You're so slow even one of my tortoises would escape you!_ ”

**_That hurt, no it didn't because he was Pride and couldn't be affected by taunts, even from Lady Dusk-_ **

" _Hey! I'm talking to you, or are you just that stupid?_ "

**_That's it! She dares taunt Pride! She’s is a goddess, but still, she dares? Pride will teach her, that –that –that  
_ **

 

**....ROAAAAR!**

 

  ________  
 \   . ,, . . /  
   \ <o . /  
     \\(,,)/

She ran around like a maniac while Pride chased her screaming with indignation. Focused on her and only her so the people were able to easily able to wear it down or concentrate on the smaller demons.

It was a good plan, but she was quickly tiring. So she came up with another plan and ran over to the side.

Scrambling up the rock face, she paused when she was out of the Demon’s reach. She turned her head towards it and sing-songed, “ _You can’t get me~ you can’t get me~_ ”

Pride opened its mouth to let out another furious roar and Dusk let go of her handhold.

As she fell she swung her scythe into the demon’s mouth, slicing up into the roof of its mouth.

The demon crumpled then faded and she yipped triumphantly, before running over to the humans, elf and dwarf.

“Close it now!” commanded Solas.

She bared her teeth at the order but obeyed anyway, raising her hand towards the Rift.

It connected quickly, but it seemed to require more power to close the rift than it had needed to open it.

The Mark tested drawing power from her connection to Kat-teh and the beasts, licking at that source of power but it could not grasp it. Instead it drew from her personal strength which was not at all that strong at that moment.

She sank to knees and still the Rift was not closed. She poured her power into the Mark ignoring the pain.

And finally-

The shock-wave that resulted in what she hoped was closing the rift, succeeded in finally knocking her down.

Into darkness and Kat-teh.

  /\\__/\  
 /_     _\  
   \\__/

Getting knocked unconscious by anything guaranteed a rocky entrance into Kat-teh since you weren’t properly asleep, which meant your brain wasn’t in the right place to connect with Kat-teh. It was the similar with the Fade she heard.

Anyway a rocky entry into Kat-teh was not what she needed right now.

She lay on cool earth looking up through the branches into the twilight sky, a few stars twinkling perpetually.

Kat-teh was beautiful to her, an internal representation of her favourite moment of the day. Was it egotistic if it happened to be the time of day she was named after? She wasn't really sure, pride was a people thing.

She was too tired to change form or get up or talk anyone. Instead she rubbed her face with her left hand (not exactly trusting the marked one) and groaned.

What was going on? What had she gotten herself into? Could she get herself out of it? What was going on with the Fade/Sky? Did this mean the Maker was going to make an appearance?

She groaned again and looked through her fingers to the sky.

No. If the Maker came that would mean that things were seriously-serious instead of just Blight-serious ( ~~ _or that the Maker really was gone_~~ ). They could handle this.

It was just making her anxious just how much she was blind-sided by all this ( _people, demons attacking her?_).

**Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ**

Without her moving around Kat-teh and calling attention to herself it took a while for her friends to find her.

She noticed her three best friends; Nug, Feline and Wolf, when they were nearly on top of her.

“ _Oh guys, hey,_ ” she was technically asleep, how did she sound so tired.

Nug crawled into her lap as she tried sitting up against a tree, Feline helping in that endeavour by assuming a human form quickly before switching back to his black big-cat form and sitting by her side. Wolf walked up last, laying down by her feet.

They sat that way for a moment; four friends who clearly needed a rest.

After a while she opened the marked hand and green light basked her face.

Feline instantly turned back into a human to grab her hand and examine it.

The other two also peered down at the Fade magic that had been brought to Kat-teh.

“ _It’s elven_ ,” Wolf murmured after a moment.

“ _Figures_ ,” Dusk hissed.

“ _Not everything is the elves’ fault, Dusk_ ,” Nug patiently responded.

“ _Yeah, some of it is Corruption’s fault_ ,” was the bitter retort.

The trio of Guardians sighed; there was no point in continuing the argument they’d been having for more than six millennia, besides; right now when Dusk was raw and scared would not be the time for an epiphany on those matters anyway.

" _It's stuck on you're self,_" Feline said with a sort of disgust, before remembering himself and adding, " _But I'm sure we'll be able to deal with it later, after all, right now it's useful, dangerous, but useful._ "

There was an uncomfortable silence before Dusk looked to her friends with green eyes and asked, “ _What’s happened this last month?_ ”

They froze.

“ _No_ ,” Dusk whimpered, “ _not you guys too_ ,”

Feline looked to the ground before looking up with a nervous smile, “ _All the Guardians are having a, hopefully temporary, lapse in memory,_ ”

Normally that sort of delivery from Feline would have been able to soften the blow of the implications of that sort of news. This day, if anything, was not normal.

“ _What could we possibly be dealing with!_ ” was screeched into Kat-teh before it faded from her view along with her three concerned friends.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work on the archive, and I've probably done something wrong; please tell me if you notice.  
> Also comments would be welcomed.


End file.
